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Thursday, March 1, 2012

Educationists review gender balance

Educationists review gender balance

A two-day workshop bringing together stakeholders in the promotion of gender equality and Kigali Institute of Education (KIE) started yesterday in Kigali.

Through the institute’s Centre of Gender, Culture and Development, the school aimed at sharing findings from its recent survey about the country’s state of education and employment from the gender perspective.

KIE’s Rector, Prof. George Njoroge, said that although a lot has been achieved in promoting women, more needs to be done in the field of education, if women, in future, are to compete favorably with their counterparts in the labour market.

“When you compare the percentage enrollment of girls in primary schools to that of boys, girls are more. But as they advance to higher levels of education, especially university, boys take over thereby standing more chances of employment,” Njoroge said.

He pointed out that some women currently face problems with promotion at their work place, urging that it’s the reason why the average percentage of female students on evening program in universities is high.

The Director of the Centre, Prof. Shirley Randell, promised the Centre will continue to carry on research work, involving scholars from universities both with in and outside the country.

In her speech, the Executive Secretary in the Gender Monitoring Office (GMO), Aquiline Niwemfura, highlighted steps government has taken in ensuring gender equality.

At the sidelines of the meeting, Niwemfura told The New Times that girl’s education at higher institutions of learning needs urgent response.

“The evening program in these institutions has done a lot in enabling women to upgrade since some dropout before getting there,” Niwemfura said.

Participants are optimistic that resolutions of the workshop will help the institute come up with draft polices to guide government in coming up with appropriate policies to support girls attain higher education.